Is Pacific Rim The Ultimate Rip-Off Film?

Long before the release of the teaser for ‘Pacific Rim’, people worldwide were shouting about the film ripping elements from other stories and stitching them all together to make one “Frankenstein’s monster” of a film.

“When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju.”

Alright, well apart from the names of the giant robots and monsters, the plot already sounds like ‘Transformers’ meets ‘Godzilla’. In the teaser, viewable below, we see giant monsters rising from the ocean to devastate the various cities that mankind call home. Frames of military action flash by, and a solid monologue is delivered over scenes of men stepping into robots as tall as skyscrapers – robots that look like Optimus Prime on steroids. Another speech is delivered by film’s star Idris Elba (‘Luther’, ‘Prometheus’), and various computer generated scenes of giant mechs beating the living hell out of trans-dimensional monsters are shown.

While it should be noted that the effects in ‘Pacific Rim’ are stunning to say the least, it should also be noted that this film feels too stuffed with what can only be described as plagiarism.

Giant monsters rising from the sea? Godzilla. Giant robot fights? Michael Bay’s Transformers franchise. People controlling giant fighting robots? ‘Real Steel’, or for the more diehard fans: ‘Gundam’ and/or ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’. Fans of all of these series have been quick to forums to call BS on director Guillermo del Toro, saying that ‘Pacific Rim’ explicitly stole these elements from their respective beloved franchises.

Guillermo’s response? ‘Pacific Rim’ has apparently always been an homage to those genres, those old films about monsters beating up robots (like the old Godzilla films) – this is just an update to those films, or more specifically to that particular genre.

Whatever the case may be, ‘Pacific Rim’ opens in theaters next Summer…unless giant monsters happen to spring from the oceans to destroy us all.